Chapter 11: Premonition & Intuition

Okawa surges toward goal, and Isagi senses that Team Z has walked into a trap. Iemon, still raw as a keeper, fails to cut out the pass, and Okawa buries the chance to make it 1-0. With Okawa's fearsome shooting now obvious, Team Z assigns two markers to him. Isagi reads Team Y's approach as patient, sitting back and striking at the ideal moment, and concludes that shutting down Okawa is the key to beating them.

Team Z keeps riding its rotating "I'm the next 9" plan, and Kuon is up next as the target man. To feed his aerial strength, the side lofts balls high, but Team Y's sharp defending makes that a struggle. While fighting to move the ball, Kunigami loses track of Niko, who pounces, strips him, and feeds a teammate. The steal stuns Isagi, who expected Niko to look for the deadly Okawa instead. Minute by minute, Team Z's window to win narrows.

At halftime the mood in the break room is grim across the board. Down 1-0, Chigiri questions whether the rotation is even working, which sets Raichi off. He snaps that Chigiri has no right to grumble after hiding his own strengths from the group, and the squad falls into another argument. Kuon steps in to defend the plan, insisting nothing needs changing, though Isagi privately wonders if that is true.

The second half opens with Imamura designated to lead for ten minutes, but with the opponent holding the ball he can barely use his gifts. He likens football to chasing a girl out of his league, telling himself that once he wins her over he wins the game. His shot, when it finally comes, amounts to nothing. Gagamaru tries to salvage the effort with a header and misses too. Twenty minutes into the half, Team Z still has not scored. Desperate to avoid another defeat and to survive in Blue Lock, Isagi chooses to stop calculating and follow his gut.

The rotating "I'm the next 9" system proves ineffective against Team Y. Niko robs Kunigami and declines to feed Okawa, catching Isagi off guard. A halftime clash flares between Chigiri and Raichi. Isagi commits to trusting his instincts to break the deadlock, with twenty-five minutes remaining and Team Y ahead 1-0.

The eleventh chapter overall, Premonition & Intuition, closes out Volume 2 as its seventh chapter and sits inside the First Selection Arc. Episode 4 adapts its events. The twenty-page chapter first ran in Japan on October 17, 2018, with the English edition arriving on April 20, 2021.